Sunday October 12th 2025 "Got YOUR Halloween costume sorted yet? If not, seek help now haha!"

Yes, friends, have YOU got YOUR Halloween costume sorted this year? If not, could you perhaps ask your "significant other" to sort something out for you?

Like this local man in this morning's Onion News for East Hampshire - see page 94!!!!

Poor husband !!!!!

But the story brings a bit of an "evil" chuckle (!) to the faces of me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois this morning, as we get ready to talk to our twin granddaughters in Perth, Australia, for our weekly Sunday "catch up call", that's for sure!

me and my light-to-moderate wife Lois - a recent picture

Almost as soon as our call to Australia begins this morning, it becomes clear that our 12-year-old twin granddaughters in Perth, Lily and Jessica, haven't yet settled on a costume for this year's Halloween, although they've got their "bat on a stick" sorted, and they give us a sneak preview of that. It's so lifelike that it gives Lois and me, a mild-mannered couple of septuagenarians, a bit of a "start", to put it mildly!

when we talk on zoom to our daughter Sarah and twin granddaughters 

Lily and Jessica, they show us their this year's "bat on a stick",

so lifelike it gives Lois and me a bit of a "start", to put it mildly - yikes!!!!

They ask us for suggestions for costumes, and we say we'll get back to them on that one (!).

It occurs to us that, for our Halloween costumes this year, here in leafy Liphook, Hampshire, UK, Lois and I could go trick-or-treating dressed as "septuagenarians" - meaning we could just wear our ordinary everyday clothes, which would save a lot of work (!).

I know a lot of people are going as Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump again this year, but Lois and I think that that's taking "scariness" a bit too far - I know it's just a bit of fun, but let's keep that fun within civilised bounds, shall we haha!

I wonder.....!!!!

I think Lois and I had better stick with "old married couple", just to be on the safe side! 

And, by coincidence, when I browse through the current issue of Lois's "The Week" magazine, there are some tips on "how to stay happily married", which is helpful.

An interesting selection of tips, including "It's OK to go to bed on a row, or on a fight", or as people often say, "Never go to bed angry".

But is it a good idea for a couple to go to bed on an angry TV programme? I think we should be told, don't you?

And Lois and I test that situation to the limits this evening, by watching the first in a new BBC1 drama series "Riot Women", all about a bunch of angry menopausal women, who seek an outlet for their frustrations by forming a punk rock band, and entering a talent contest for charity.

It's strange, because a few days ago Lois and I saw campaigning climate-crisis militant and wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham explain how, in the 1970's he got through his teenage years and solved his autism and anger problems, simply by becoming a punk rocker. 

Well, if you thought the teenage Chris Packham looked angry, well you ain't seen nothing yet, at least not till you see tonight's menopausal women - my goodness yes!

See the laments of menopausal Jess (played by Lorraine Asbourne) in this scene:

And it's interesting that, in this first episode, menopausal Jess's daughter references Vladimir Putin: "So, Putin starts a war, and you're going to sort it out by making a 'fanny' of yourself in a talent contest?"

Putin has had obvious "anger issues", possibly since childhood - is it too late for him to become a punk rocker and give the rest of the world a bit of peace, like, literally?

Vladimir Putin - "obvious anger issues, possibly since childhood"

I wonder.... !

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!